Susan Boyle: 47-year-old becomes overnight music superstar

When 47-year-old small town spinster Susan Boyle stepped on to the stage of Britain's Got Talent and announced she was unemployed, had never been married and "never been kissed, actually," few in the audience would have wondered why. With unkempt hair and Leonid Breshnev eyebrows, and mention of her ten-year-old cat "Pebbles," the Blackburn, Scotland lass resembled basically every other reality TV talent show timewaster who talks big and delivers nothing but personal humiliation on a national stage. But then Susan Boyle opened her mouth and sang I Dreamed a Dream from Les Miserables, and her world changed forever.

Chris Parry